Thursday, August 25, 2011

Paperback Swap: Swap out those useless old shelf stealers...

Last year, Nicole turned me onto a site called "PaperBack Swap" where you can send out your old paperback novels in media mail (for cheap!) to people that request them, earning credits towards books of your own selection. I finally signed up last week, and after listing ten titles, had seven of them requested of me. I sent them out and waited for people to confirm their arrival- and then went shopping myself for new books that I've wanted to read!

How does it work? Connected to your e-mail, you get an alert whenever someone requests one of your listed books. You have two days to confirm the request, and about four to mail it out. Your 1-book credit will arrive when the book's arrival is confirmed by the requester.

How much does it really cost? Nicole showed me about the "brown paper" roll that's cheap to buy that you can wrap your book in with some basic packing tape. You also can print out the shipping address (optional) for your book. Then it will cost you between $1-$3.00/per book to ship it out Media mail across America.

What you get for free: Every time one of your books is confirmed as received, you get a credit to go shopping for books on the PaperBack Swap site. As of today- there were over $5M books available to order.

Additional Services:
-The website has sister sites for CD and DVD swapping as well.
-You can buy 'book credits' for about $3 if you run out.
-You can create a "Wish List" and wait for popular or rare books to become available. You will get an e-mail notification when it becomes available to order.
-You can peruse multiple "book club" lists and "top" book lists...I found some new Historical Fiction books that way (...to replace Game of Thrones now that I'm done with that series for the moment!)

Check it out! It's a great way to swap out your novels for something new!